Leisure providers’ perspectives on barriers and facilitators for leisure participation of racially minoritized youth with disabilities

Racially minoritized youth with disabilities participate less often in leisure activities than their white peers. Despite their central role in designing and delivering leisure programmes, the perspectives of leisure providers remain under-explored. Our study addresses this gap by exploring leisure providers’ perspectives on the barriers and facilitators of leisure participation among racially minoritized youth with disabilities. This qualitative study used an inductive thematic analysis involving 12 in-depth interviews with leisure providers. Key barriers included family and cultural factors, structural constraints, and communication challenges. Facilitators included acknowledging cultural identities and promoting participation through diverse staffing, accessible information, and programme adjustments. Findings show how organizational capacity shaped whether providers could accommodate participants’ cultural, linguistic, and disability-related needs. The results emphasize the need for culturally responsive and racially inclusive programming, increased funding for leisure programmes, diverse staffing, and comprehensive training in cultural sensitivity, anti-ableism and anti-racism.